What is the fight for 15? The fight for 15 is a battle currently going on in our very own country to raise the minimum wage to 15 dollars an hour. There are many Americans today who support increasing the minimum wage, but are unaware of the many impacts that would arise with this increase. This topic is controversial and relevant because it affects every person living in the United States. Living on minimum wage and working only minimum wage jobs for a lifetime affects lives negatively and makes it hard for future generations to change that pattern. That is why instead of changing minimum wage, and causing hurtful impacts, we should focus on helping future generations avoid being stuck working minimum wage jobs.

I decided to write about this because there are so many people that are so passionate about the war on minimum wage but are so unaware of the repercussions that would come with raising it. People who believe that simply raising the minimum wage would bring in more money for the poor, the people who are working multiple jobs and 40 hour weeks, need to look at this issue from an economical view point. People who think this way do not realize what other impacts come along with a minimum wage increase. They do not realize that this slight increase in their paychecks makes certain companies or corporations raise the price of their products so in the end people working these jobs earn more and pay more. “Raising the minimum wage will help the poor” is the main argument for raising the minimum wage but I believe that the minimum wage should not be raised because there are many statistics, data, and cold hard facts that say that raising the minimum wage would not help the lower class and that there are other ways the government can help the poor much more effectively. Economically speaking, a big wage increase implemented all at once would negatively affect the country’s economy. Instead of having workers work long hours for minimum wage, our country should be encouraging progression out of these jobs into more secure and higher paying ones, instead of simply complying with minimum wage workers’ wants for higher pay, which only benefit themselves and lack of progress in the workforce. Being happy affects your health in many ways and when you have no money it is hard to be happy when you cannot provide yourself with what you need. In order to get minimum wage workers into a comfortable state financially, they need to acquire better jobs. Raising the minimum wage for these people would not make them more financially set in the long run, but having a better job or career would.

Raising the minimum wage in the past has barely changed the poverty level so why would raising it work this time? Such a big increase would do more harm than good if the minimum wage were to be raised. Raising the minimum wage in the past has resulted in businesses making cuts and firing low-skilled workers, making a competition between workers and making it difficult to find work. “In a survey of 1,213 businesses and human resources professionals, 38% of employers who currently pay minimum wage said they would lay off some employees if the minimum wage was raised to $10.10. 54% said they would decrease hiring levels” (Should the Federal Minimum Wage Be Increased?). This frustrates me when I see people complain about needing more money and want the government to raise the minimum wage when they don't think about anything else that comes with it, all they want to see is a bigger number on their paycheck. But the government knows that minimum wage targets workers, not the poor. People forget that almost half of everyone working is still living with their parents and aren't technically poor as “45% of minimum wage workers are aged 16-24, 55% are older than 25” (Should the Federal Minimum Wage Be Increased?). Another article found that 47 million Americans are living on incomes, 3.3 million earned less then minimum wage or below but half of those people are still relying on their parents so 750,000 people were the number of people working minimum wage jobs that were living below the federal poverty line, which is only 1.6 percent of the population (Raising the Minimum Wage Won't Solve Poverty). This number is so small why would anybody want to risk hurting the national and likely international economy to hope that raising the minimum wage would have a chance of helping 1.6% of Americans. Wanting this increase seems selfish and naïve as the rest of the population would be disadvantaged. 

Raising the minimum wage doesn't just mean a fatter paycheck. That bigger pay check comes with bigger taxes and bigger prices on so many things necessary in life. Raising the minimum wage causes small businesses to either make cuts and fire people or raise the prices of their goods in order to make up for their loss. Minimum wage jobs, such as fast food jobs, require minimum skill and therefore do not warrant a high pay grade. If minimum wage were increased to $15 an hour, “fast-food prices [would increase] by at least one-fourth” (Shark). If fast food workers start getting paid fifteen dollars an hour in a couple of years at most their position would be cut for some type of robotic technology so these companies can continue to make maximum profit, so in the end their wanted raise is costing them their job and now they are making zero income. Raising the minimum wage would also make everything more expensive and going back to the fact that only 1.6 percent of people working minimum wage jobs are technically poor, all the other poor people out there not working now must pay more so it's making the poor poorer. Sabia and Robert Nielsen performed a study in 2012 and it showed “no statistically significant evidence that a higher minimum wage has helped reduce financial, housing, health, or food insecurity among the poor” (Strain). Raising the minimum wage looks good when you are looking at a bigger paycheck, but in the end when you do the math you start to spend more than you make.

Minimum wage was never designed for a person to live on for the rest of their life. The government gives us free education and if you don't take advantage of the free education put right in your face you should have to work a minimal skilled job getting payed 10 dollars an hour, because that is the skill level you possess. This is another reason why I am so passionate about this topic because I have seen first-hand people that I went to school with who did not take advantage of their education, and are now stuck working minimum wage jobs with no plan for the future. That is why I get frustrated when I see people like that who could've put in the work and made something out of themselves but they literally chose not too and now they are complaining about not having enough money. They complain when we tell them no because raising the minimum wage would end up hurting the economy which affects everybody in the United States because there is only one economy we run on and once its damages it takes time for it to recover. 

I think the government should start taxing certain “non-profit” organizations like the National Football League, in 2015 the NFL made 7.24 billion dollars which is enough for 10 Pluto missions (James Brady, SBNation). The government should also spend less on our military and defense (gradually), immigration reform, and the prison system and direct that money towards public education, programs/organizations for single parents, medicare, and pro-choice programs. When I say public education I mean they should have better after school care and programs where certain kids can get a to go meal because there are kids that go home to a house with no food. Schools should have a late bus that drives at some point an hour or two after school has ended because I've seen kids choose to not get help or ask for help because they would have to walk home if they missed the bus. Growing up without a mom or dad is extremely difficult when theres nothing to eat or do when you go home, not all kids but some just get bored and get into illegal activities like selling drugs or joining gangs. Some people are just too poor to get the medicine and will throw away their prescription right after they walk out from the doctors office (Making it Work). The government should do away with Trumps Anti-Abortion executive order that was put in place in January because when you are already poor it makes life ten times harder when you have to provide not only for yourself but a child and it should be your choice if you want to keep the baby or not. Im not saying that if you are poor you are bound to be poor I'm saying that they are just at a disadvantage when they are growing up in a family with little money because they just don't have certain things that privileged kids have. I am very fortunate that I grew up in a great family that has given me many opportunities that some people may never experience and that is why I also researched how family life is affected when your parents are working 40 hour weeks and when you work so long and barely have enough money to get by.

The minimum wage should not be increased because it’s not designed for you to work there and try to raise a family while working a minimum wage job forever. Raising a child in a bad environment where there is little to no contact between the parents and the child because they are working all the time usually leads to poor school ethics and aggressiveness. It doesn't happen always but in “Making it Work” by Edward Lowe, Thomas Weisner, and Hirokazu Yoshikawa argues “there is no one kind of working poor person, job situation, or family circumstances” and that raising a family on a low paying job can create negative attributes in the child. They receive this data with little bias because they selected teachers in classes where they know little of their students’ background and family life. In the book, they show how important raising your child correctly is and staying in school and receiving an education that earns you a well-paying job is. Here is another reason why the government should give more money to schools for more after school programs so they aren't in a bad environment for longer than they have to and so they are preoccupied and won’t get into any bad habits or activities. I went to private school for 2 years and then went to public school for junior and senior year. The environment was so much different, the first week of school I witness my first actual school fight, showing that some kids who grow up in bad environments, or people that choose to waste their education and school years do unproductive things like fighting instead of learning. When kids with bad “student habits and ethics” started to act up all the teacher would do is hit a button and an administrator will be there and take them out of the class so they don't distract the class. Whatever they say when they take you out of the room doesn't work at all because all of them as soon as they are with their friends talking about it and making fun of the administrators. The way the teachers just pressed a button and without care for the student does not help the students attitude towards them. When teachers work it out and talk to them so administrators don't have to get involved helps build trust between the student and teacher. For the student, sometimes all they need is an adult to talk to that they can trust and that increases the chance of academic success and could turn someone’s life around. At private school, there were too many of these kinds of teachers that were obligated to try to have a personal relationship with you and I hated it, but I also wasn't in a position where I needed to be in counseling. At Public school, teachers didn't have to do anything they had a magic button that just took the problem away. If the government gave public schools a little bit of money so they can have money for programs that build relationships with teachers, there would be less need for them to spend money on increasing the minimum wage because there would be less Americans stuck working those jobs forever. If a relationship changed a student’s way of thinking and actually got him to care about education and learning that’s one less uneducated person out there that doesn't care about anybody but himself. There are many other options such as these that focus on helping people get out of minimum wage job-ruts, as opposed to catering to people who made wrong choices or grew up in bad environments who are now working minimum wage jobs for their whole lives.

Raising the minimum wage is an ineffective way of dealing with the wage gap and people need to be aware that raising the minimum wage wouldn't help the poor people, it would hurt the economy and make it harder for everyone. People need to realize this and focus on more important things like guiding the next generation because they are going to be running the country in the future. If we focus on changing the attitudes of students who don't care about anything to where they actually care about their future, our communities and cities and our entire country will benefit. Raising the minimum wage would be a complete waste of time and would hurt everyone financially. Minimum wage jobs are for young people looking to make some money before they go out into the real world. If you are working a minimum wage job you are doing the same things a 16-year-old can do, but you are all alone financially and have to deal with all the real world problems. That is why I get frustrated when I see people complaining about the wage gap and not having enough money when they had the chance to learn and become something that is actually worth the salary they are seeking. Instead they did not take advantage of their education, and that tragedy is something our country needs to focus on fixing, not increasing minimum wage. Instead of hurting the economy and millions of Americans economic standing for a small percentage of people, other methods need to be taken to ensure that a minimum wage increase is not viewed as necessary in the future, because less people will be relying on minimum wage jobs for long periods of time in their lives.
